Jalapeño Fried Chicken

Jalapeño fried chicken! Boneless chicken marinated in pickled jalapeño brine, breaded with masa harina and fried crispy

I had the idea to marinate chicken in straight-up pickled jalapeños (see this copycat Chick-Fil-Gay for a pickle brine recipe!) and once that got started, it wasn’t a far leap to a Tex-Mex style fried chicken … and that means corn. To me, anyway. I took my standard super-crispy fried chicken recipe and changed it…

Read More

Kabocha Squash Pie

kabocha squash pie with nut crust

Kabocha squash pie is incredibly better than any other kind of pumpkin pie, because the kabocha pumpkin is naturally denser and sweeter than even a sugar pie pumpkin. And fortunately for everyone, kabocha squash (aka Japanese pumpkin) are getting to be pretty easy to find in these modern days. They can look a little funky…

Read More

Elvira’s Adraka Kozerole

Elvira's Adraka Kozerole Recipe

Inspired by my hero, Elvira, and the dinner scene in Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, I present Elvira’s Adraka Kozerole. If you’ve seen the movie, the dinner scene is one of the most memorable. It was to me, anyway. Watch the HilahCooking Halloween special video now to see how to make Elvira’s Adraka Kozerole! Picture…

Read More

Kabocha Pumpkin Salad

kabocha squash salad with avocado dressing

Roasted kabocha pumpkin salad. Look at this gorgeous thing! If you’re unfamiliar with kabocha squash, you may know it by the name Japanese pumpkin. Or maybe you’ve really never seen one. I hadn’t seen one until a couple of years ago. I feel like they just recently have hit the US markets en masse. But…

Read More

Autumn Seasonal Recipes

It’s autumn-time and that means orange pumpkins and red leaves and dried up corncobs and haunted hayrides. Thanks to Halloween, autumn is probably my favorite season. Though summer comes mighty close. To celebrate the harvest season, here are my most delicious recipes that honor the bounty of fall. Make the most of the year’s best…

Read More

Roasted Green Beans and Tomatoes

Our new favorite way with green beans – roasted with lots of olive oil, whole garlic and cherry tomatoes. The oil and tomatoes break down into thick, savory sauce and the garlic gets caramelized – perfect for mopping up with a hunk of sourdough bread. Or dump the whole pan on top of a pot…

Read More

Roasted Okra

roasted okra how to roast okra

If you’ve ever wondered if you can roast okra or if one could roast okra, wonder no more. Because roasted okra can be done and more importantly, it should be done. For real, after I finally tried roasting okra, I forgot why I ever fried it (besides the obvious crispy reasons). Roasted okra becomes chewy…

Read More

Date and Kale Salad

Date and kale salad: massaged kale salad with olive oil, lemon juice, pomegranate molasses, dates, celery, nuts and a bit of hot peppers

Another kale salad! But this one is so good it’s been on weekly rotation since I first had its predecessor in September last year when we were in London. We were at the obnoxiously cool, quite pretentious Ace Hotel and I was starving for vegetables after eating three days’ worth of fish and chips and…

Read More

Sweet Peach Cornbread Cake

Sweet peach cornbread cake. For lovers of cake and lovers of sweet cornbread, this cornbread cake is a hit

This sweet peach cornbread cake recipe started out as a peach upside down cake recipe but as I was eating that cake, it occurred to me that a sweet cornbread cake was something I had never had and wanted to try very badly. So before my first cake had even cooled, I was on to…

Read More